1st Place:
JKDAC32These
three DACs sound so good - a couple of years ago you couldn't have dreamt of
achieving the quality we have here with any of these three for less than
something like $10,000 or probably rather more. There has to be a winner, it is
the JKDAC32.
The JKDAC32 sports the now familiar aluminum enclosure
with plastic end plates, NanoPhosphate (LiFePO4) batteries, modified 24/192
HiFace async USB to I2S. This time the I2S
feeds a Burr Brown PCM5102 32/384 capable DAC. I should mention that with this
DAC you may find you need to flick the on-off switch in the front panel to reset
the DAC itself if no music pays, the USB connection is fine, it's a foible of
the configuration.

Bass is very impressive, the equal of the Halide DAC HD, so it's
got a great bass dynamic, it goes deep, it's tight, textured, indeed it's really
propulsive. Where the JKDAC32 wins extra points is that the upper-mid and treble
are sweeter yet still very detailed. This is no treble cover-up job! The next
thing that struck the auditioning panel was the separation between the
instruments; this was a step ahead of the best of the other DACs being tested
here. Imaging was found to be very three dimensional and we agreed there was an
especially strong focus for the central image whilst the expansive nature of the
soundstage was maintained.

The best DAC here? The panel was unanimously in favor of the
JKDAC32. So much so that the owner of the Rega sold it the next day. He
purchased a JKDAC32. So have I.